Some of Bing map and Google map services are not free, For example, They will not provide a free Geo database to developer.

Fortunately there are some open source geo information websites. Geonames.org is the one great open source and free geo services provider.

About Geonames.org:

The GeoNames geographical database is available for download free of charge under a creative commons attribution license. … The data is accessible free of charge through a number of web services and a daily database export. GeoNames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All lat/long coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). …

Now we are going to write code for a simple Bing map application. What we first need to do is install Bing map SDK, we have already had an article about Bing map SDK. but the SDK information updated by Microsoft, so please find the newest Bing map SDK from Microsoft official site and download proper SDK package for your application.

For example, if you want to create a Bing map application using Silverlight, you should download Bing map Silverlight controls. The download place is here. After your download, you will find a file named “BingMapsSilverlightControlv1.0.1Installer.msi”. double click to install the Bing map SDK.

Now we use Visual Studio 2010, create a new Silverlight Application:

In the project, right click the Silverlight Application’ references folder to Add Reference.

Locate the installing Bing map SDK folder, just like the following:

There are two dll files under the Libraries folder:

Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.Common.dll Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.dll

Add these two files as references.

Note: You do not need to download the control if you are only going to use the embedded maps feature or if you want to access the Bing Maps Silverlight Control using JavaScript. These features are described in the Embedding a Map into Your Web Page and the Accessing the Control Using Script topics. – From MSDN

Even you are an experienced Bing map developer, you still might forget how to start to develop a Bing map application after some time if you no more touch the Bing map stuff. So here we record some initial tings for Bing map development.

Here you have 2 options to choose depends on whether you have a Live ID.

Since we have Live ID so we clicked Sign In button. Then we are accessed to Microsoft Live account sign in page. Just input your Hotmail or Live ID to login.

After you login by your Live ID, you will come to Bing Map account center which asks you create Bing map account:

You must create an account to get Bing map key or upload a Bing map apps which you created.

After you have a Bing map account, you can create a new Bing map key or view existing keys: The “Create or view keys” menu item is on the left panel, please check the following screen:

You can create up to 5 Bing map keys, when you create a key, you have to specify the Application Type. After you created keys, you can view them just below the Create Key block. If you need more than 5 keys, you have to contact Microsoft.